Fu Yin: ask which layer stays still
Content version · · Sources & references
Dun Jia Yan Yi uses Fu Yin in three senses: Peng on Peng at the star layer, gate and Chief at rest on every Yang Wood hour, and the Yang Metal-on-hour-stem pattern. Recomputing each decade counts them over 1080 charts.
The short version8 min read
Fu Yin means "lying still", so ask which layer stays still: at the star layer the whole ring turns zero steps, for gate and Chief both rest on a Yang Wood hour, and the "hour pattern" borrows the name while the chart may have shifted a step.
- Dun Jia Yan Yi uses Fu Yin in three places: nine stars still in their home palaces; gate and Chief both resting at every Yang Wood hour; and Yang Metal added onto the hour stem, the "hour pattern", also called the Fu Yin pattern.
- Of 1080 hour charts, 240 rest at the star layer and 240 at the gate layer, but only 133 at both. Star-layer cases gather at the opening hour and the hour of the decade's own instrument; gate-layer cases at the opening hour and the closing Yin Water hour.
- The book values it two ways: the verse calls it the worst, a Huangdi Yinfu Jing passage in juan 1 says it magnifies whatever luck or bad luck is already there. This site marks its star-layer and gate-layer conditions as pending.
Read first
One word, three senses in the book
Fu Yin (伏吟) literally means "lying still", so reading it begins with one question: which layer is still.
Dun Jia Yan Yi (遁甲演义) uses it in more than one way. The verse in juan 1 states only the best-known one:
Of them all Fu Yin is the worst: Tian Peng lands on the earth-plate Tian Peng.
The "Fu Yin pattern" entry in juan 2 adds two more, three in all. The picture sets the three tests side by side.
The three senses side by side: star-layer Fu Yin and "gate and Chief rest" come from the Fu Yin entry in juan 2 of Dun Jia Yan Yi, the hour pattern also called Fu Yin pattern from the passage on the hour pattern in the same juan, quoting the Sanyuan Jing.
The first looks at the stars: Tian Peng on the heaven plate sits on the Tian Peng spot of the earth plate, and the nine stars have not left home. The second looks at gate and Chief: a note by Tang Wei (汤谓) says "Jia Zi arriving on Jia Zi is Fu Yin", and at every Yang Wood hour gate and Chief both rest. The third, the "hour pattern", quotes the Sanyuan Jing: Yang Metal added onto the hour stem, "also called the Fu Yin pattern". The objects differ: one layer of nine stars, the gate with the Chief, and a single stem.
The ring stays put: star-layer Fu Yin is zero steps
On a rotating plate the nine stars turn as one ring, so star-layer Fu Yin is not about a single star.
The Chief carries the instrument of its decade and is added onto the palace where the hour stem sits on the earth plate; the other stars turn the same number of steps with it. Zero steps means every star is back in its own home palace, which the book writes as "the nine stars still in their home palaces, not moved".
Enlarge diagram · scroll sideways to read
The opening hour of a decade is the steadiest case. The hour stem is Yang Wood, which is replaced by the instrument its decade hides (Yang Earth for the Jia Zi decade); the Chief carries exactly that instrument and is added onto the very palace it already stands in, so it cannot move. So at "every Yang Wood hour" the star layer rests in every ju. The other steady case is when the hour stem is itself the decade's instrument: Wu Chen in the Jia Zi decade, Ji Mao in Jia Xu, Geng Yin in Jia Shen, Xin Chou in Jia Wu, Ren Zi in Jia Chen and Gui Hai in Jia Yin. The Chief carries Yang Earth and the hour stem is Yang Earth too, again zero steps.
Ten hours in a decade: which ones rest at each layer
Take the 1080 hour charts (each of eighteen ju run through its sixty hours) and count those that turn zero steps: 240 at the star layer, 240 at the gate layer.
| Place in the decade | Star layer rests | Gate layer rests |
|---|---|---|
| First hour (Yang Wood) | 108 charts, every ju and decade | 108 charts |
| Hour stem is the decade's instrument | 108 charts | none |
| Tenth hour (Yin Water) | none (the Jia Yin decade overlaps the row above) | 108 charts |
| Coincidence from lodging the center | 24 charts | 24 charts |
| Total | 240 charts | 240 charts |
The gate layer works differently. The duty door walks the nine palaces one step per hour, and after nine steps, at the tenth hour of the decade, the Yin Water hour, it is back at the decade's head palace. So the gate layer's two steady points are the opening hour and the closing Yin Water hour.
Enlarge diagram · scroll sideways to read
The 24 coincidences come from the center: a stem sitting at Center Five on the earth plate lodges in Kun Two, so two stems, one at Center Five and one at Kun Two, count as one spot, and the board looks as if nothing moved. Both layers rest together in 133 charts, 108 of them opening hours; the star layer rests alone in 107 and the gate layer alone in 107.
The hour pattern: named Fu Yin, though the board may have moved
The passage on the hour pattern in juan 2, quoting the Sanyuan Jing, gives the third sense:
Yang Metal added onto the hour stem of the time is the hour pattern, also called the Fu Yin pattern.
Its object is one stem: heaven-plate Yang Metal pressing on the hour stem, regardless of whether the ring moved. The book's example is Yang-mode ju 2, upper cycle of Xiaohan, a Yang Fire or Yin Metal day, the Ji Chou hour. Recomputed: the Ji Chou hour falls in the Jia Shen decade, whose Chief, Tian Fu, carries Yang Metal. On the earth plate Yang Metal stands in Xun Four and the hour stem Yin Earth in Zhen Three; with the Chief set down on that stem, Yang Metal arrives in Zhen Three and presses on the earth-plate Yin Earth. Yang Metal went from Xun Four to Zhen Three, the ring has moved one step, and the star layer is not at rest.
Enlarge diagram · scroll sideways to read
The text adds that whenever Yang Metal is the Chief, all ten hours are hour patterns. Yang Metal is the instrument of the Jia Shen decade, in which the Chief carries exactly that, so each of its ten hours meets "Metal on the hour stem": one sixth of all sixty.
Two verdicts, two open points
The book does not say one thing about Fu Yin. The verse calls it the worst; a passage in juan 1 headed Huangdi Yinfu Jing puts it differently:
At a Fu Yin hour, Peng on Peng: a lucky star seen there makes the matter more lucky, an unlucky star met there makes it more unlucky still.
The first is a grade, the second acts like a magnifying glass. The same note adds a use: it is not a time for troops, only for gathering in goods and money. The three statements do not share one standard, and this article only sets them side by side.
Which layer stayed put?
Yin-mode ju 6, the Jia Shen hour: what are the star and gate layers?
Jia Shen opens its decade, so neither Chief nor duty door moved: zero steps at both layers, in every ju.
The Wu Chen hour of the Jia Zi decade?
The hour stem Yang Earth is the decade's own instrument, so the Chief stays and the star layer rests; the gate layer needs the duty door to be back after four steps, which it usually is not.
The Gui You hour of the Jia Zi decade?
The duty door has walked nine steps and is back at the head palace, so the gate layer rests; the star layer needs Yin Water and Yang Earth to share a spot, which usually they do not.
How a star is judged "back at its home" is also in how to read Fu Yin, Fan Yin and void branches and the Tian Peng star; the case where the ring turns to the opposite side is next, in what makes Fan Yin hold.
Questions readers ask next
Can the chart of any hour be Fu Yin?
Any can, but few do it reliably. Star-layer Fu Yin needs the whole ring to turn zero steps, and two hours of each decade manage that every time: the opening Yang Wood hour and the hour whose stem is the decade's own instrument. The gate layer rests at the opening hour and the closing Yin Water hour. Lodging the center in Kun Two adds some coincidences.
Is "Jia Zi added onto Jia Zi" always the Jia Zi hour?
It describes the heaven-plate Jia Zi, the instrument the Chief carries, pressing on the earth-plate Jia Zi, so the Chief has not moved. That holds at the opening hour of all six decades, not only the Jia Zi hour of the Jia Zi decade, which is why the text says "every Yang Wood hour".
If the hour pattern is also called the Fu Yin pattern, has the chart not moved?
No. The hour pattern looks at Yang Metal pressing on the hour stem and only borrows the name. In the book's example, Yang-mode ju 2 at the Ji Chou hour, the Chief Tian Fu is added from Xun Four to Zhen Three, the ring has moved one step, and the star layer is not at rest.
Was this article helpful?
Sources & references
Continue reading
Three Wonders in the Tomb (三奇入墓): Choose the Tomb Table, Then See Where the Wonder Lands ↗
Fan Yin (反吟): The Position of Four Steps, or the Name of Jia Zi Against Jia Wu ↗